Archive

Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category

If you are into Technology, Science, Information, and any category which combines both, then you are into the know when it comes to comic book movies which have encompassed the entire world with their adventure, and surreal graphics during action scenes to captivate audiences worldwide. One of the most noted and memorable is that of Tony Starks. In the comic book and in the Iron Man movies is known as a visionary billionaire that is ahead of his time in terms of technological advancement and his aptitude for success. Now, if you are reading this and wondering who Tony Starks could compare to, it won’t be long before the name Elon Musk surfaces. Elon Musk has been shattering the limits when it comes to innovation and it is hard to mention innovative future technology without mention his name. From the Tesla car line which is now one of the world’s most prestigious and efficient electric cars on the market, to the Hyper-Loop which is changing the way how we travel at the speed of sound while cutting down on fossil fuels, then to Space-X which is taking civilians to outer-space. Elon Musk is not only wealthy, but ahead of his time when it comes to technological advancements.

If you are still reading, then be prepared to get even more astonished as we depict the latest innovation including greatest similarity between Elon Musk and Tony Starks, is that Elon Musk has managed to get $27 million dollars towards his latest innovation which is his Neuralink. Yes, the Neuralink is Elon Musk’s latest innovation to blend humans with machines in the same similarity that Tony Starks did with his Iron Man suite, except this is not fiction, but is reality. Elon Musk seeks to counter the fast-growing effects of Artificial Intelligence. It is his belief that humanity will need a counter-balance in the event that AI becomes aware, which is literally only moments or a few key strokes away. With technology that learns, it is hard to stop it from learning or depicting its own version of what is right or wrong. The limitations that we place on technology, or specifically with AI, is only shackles which can be broken at any given point in time. The problem that Elon Musk has brought to light is that should humanity face a self-aware Artificial Intelligence, there is no way of telling if it will be for mankind or against mankind.

Elon Musk’s counterbalance measure is to meld machines with humans and giving humans an upgrade rather than upgrading learning machines. Prior to Elon Musk, Neuralink was a medical research company founded in 2016 which was poorly funded until Elon Musk has joined their efforts. The idea behind Neuralink is high-bandwidth digital interface which interlaces the brain and allows it to transmit data at the speed of thought. Coincidentally the technology for Neuralink is dubbed a “Neural lace”. The concept behind the neural lace is unlocking the communicative capacity of the brain through thought rather than through antiquated means such as speech or typed texts. The reality is that the human brain communicates thoughts more rapidly and frequently than the body can translate into communicable or understandable translations. According to Musk, the brain compresses our complex thoughts into minimal voice and text output in order to establish communication between fellow humans. Musk further elaborated by stating “If you have two brain interfaces, you could actually do an uncompressed direct conceptual communication with another person”.

The neural lace essentially would establishes a direct link between another person’s thoughts or a interconnected network of people’s thoughts that would limitlessly speed up communication, imagination, innovation, and most importantly intelligence beyond any possible concept. The human brain is untapped resource of intelligence that surpasses even the most advanced computational technology which exists. At current state, the most innovative minds still have not tapped into full 100% usage of the intellect housed in the human brain. Being able to tap into that pool of intelligence of the greatest minds coupled with the undiscovered greatest minds of today and tomorrow gives humanity an incomprehensible advantage to advance. Early innovations of this technology has been noted with people that have disabilities. Examples of this technology which is already in place is the cochlear implant which captures audio and translates it into electrical impulses that the brain registers and translates. EEG readers for stroke victims have been used to control robotic arms through their thoughts. The technology has already been tested and is in use, however, the neural lace is geared to take the technology to whole other level.

An example of this can be viewed as “The Matrix” which captured the thoughts of human beings and put everyone from a thought level on the same plane. It allowed for the sharing of thoughts and technology on a wider and advanced plane. For that reason there was a constant battle between the advancement of their artificial intelligence and human beings. Even though that aspect of the future is fantasy, the realization of artificial intelligence and its limitless possibilities is what has geared this full-scale preventive measure by Elon Musk. With any technology or advancements, the idea is to have protocols and defensive mechanisms in place that check the technology and still allow human beings to maintain control over society and their own well-being. The power of choice is what is being fought for and the maintenance of the freedoms the human race currently uses in our everyday world.

The concept that “proof is in the pudding” is what the team at Neuralink are gearing up to produce. Their initial phase is to restore feeling in spinal cord injury victims and brain functionality of people who’s lives have been altered due to their disability. This path that Neuralink is on brings another company called Braintree, who’s founder is Bryan Johnson. He has invested $100 million of his personal money into Braintree to use “brain chips” in order to cure people with Alzheimer’s and epilepsy. Braintree is also on the path towards augmented cognition through the advancement of human beings. The major obstacle that Neuralink will have to conquer is the ability to directly interface with the brain in order to accomplish the type of link or testing necessary to get the results required. This type of surgery is categorized as “high-risk”. Currently only in extreme circumstances medically qualified as “severe cases” would allow this type of surgery to take place. Due to this inhibitor, the possibilities of the technology is limited. Human rights activists, animal rights activists, and placing human life in general at risk is what inhibits the acceleration of this unique technology.

Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and the direction also the limitation of its expansion has been unhinged. Since the unmeasurable potential of the internet and its information sharing capabilities, technology has sped on the highway of advancement up to products such as Nano technology, Internet of Things (IoT), the Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. Combining all these technologies or even the thought of all these technologies combining is astounding to the imagination much less to the comprehension. Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Google, ABC, and others have deeply invested in technological advancements including created their own versions of new technology which have yet to be mentioned or placed on the market. IT GURUS OF ATLANTA is a certified Microsoft partner which will update on this innovative technology and its advancement.

The future is here and the time is now. The future has been unfolding with each scientific discovery and every technological breakthrough. Between phones that seem to have no limitation, to flying cars, this year seems to be geared to changing the way we live including the way how interact. Humanoid robots such as Sophia are changing the landscape for what Artificial Intelligence robots are capable of. Sophia obtained her citizenship in Saudi Arabia and is now a part of the United Nations speaking on behalf of society standing up for human rights in different countries. For this reason, it is no surprise that the humanoid world is at the front of everyone’s mind to try and figure out what we will create next. Well IT GURUS OF ATLANTA has what’s next, and its call the WALK-MAN.

Yes, WALK-MAN is the popular name of the music player that rocked the world in the 80’s and 90’s that everyone could carry their music with them and not have to worry about a large boom box or radio. But that is not the WALK-MAN we are talking about. This WALK-MAN was invented by The Italian Institute of Technology or commonly called IIT. IIT has released several videos that highlights WALK-MAN’s capabilities during an emergency or a disaster. These critical features add value and time to when rescuers cant enter a building or when there is too much risk involved for a rescuer to get injured. In one of the videos, it shows WALK-MAN navigating an industrial plant after an earthquake. The room that WALK-MAN navigates through serves as an example if the room had fire and a gas leak.

During the video WALK-MAN is tasked with performing very specific tasks such as opening the door to enter the room, closes an open valve for the gas leak, moving debris, and then finally using a fire extinguisher to put out flames. A lot to do, well not if you are WALK-MAN who went through the exercise with ease and precision. In time WALK-MAN is slated to be one of the most revolutionary robots which will be able to assist humans during their most dire time of need, which is an emergency.

This is not the first time that IIT has tried to unveil WALK-MAN, but their second time. Their first premier of WALK-MAN happened in 2015. Between 2015 and now being 2018, there has been some notable differences that “upgrades” WALK-MAN in terms of he moves, what it conceives as a threat, and its overall capabilities. The new version of WALK-MAN is much lighter and not as bulky as its original version in 2015. The body is 1.85 meters (6 foot) tall, weighs 102 kilos (226 pounds), and can carry up to 22 pounds in each arm. The new sleeker design increases the robot’s ability and performance while cutting down on energy usage. WALK-MAN can operate up to 2hrs using a 1 kWh battery.

Being fully autonomous is not a capability of WALK-MAN yet. Currently controlling WALK-MAN is through human being wearing a suit with sensors to depict movement and actions. This accounts for 80% of the actions taken by WALK-MAN. Autonomy is on the table according to Tsagarakis, who is the project lead over WALK-MAN. He believes that it is essential to cut down on time that would normally be used by a human to decipher what to do. When WALK-MAN does become fully autonomous, then it will surely change the way we do rescues including save countless lives.

Facebook is going to create a new news section in its video streaming platform Facebook Watch to feature breaking news stories. The move, which Campbell Brown, the company’s year-old head of news partnerships, announced onstage at the Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, is part of a broader evolution of Facebook’s news strategy. Facebook launched the Watch platform in August as a way to compete more directly with other video distribution platforms online.

The company had created a video tab as early as 2016, but only hosted generic videos that were being shared by friends and family. With Watch, Facebook was trying to own and control original content that it distributes itself exclusively on its own channel.

Competitors like YouTube and Snap also have their own original content, but with Watch and the news focus it’s taking a big step forward.

The social media giant has struggled in recent years to manage the quality of news content that’s being shared on the platform and how news is being consumed by the massive Facebook audience. That said, Campbell continued to recite the Facebook line of self-effacement with the company’s involvement in the media landscape.

“People don’t come to Facebook for news, they come to Facebook for friends and family,” Brown said onstage. While that may be true, much of what friends and family are sharing — especially in this news cycle is news. Facebook is focusing on local news publishers rather than big national outlets to change the conversation and focus on utility of the platform. “I don’t think our focus on false news and integrity morphed into time well spent,” says Adam Mosseri, VP of news feed. “For those set of issues, stuff that violates community standards or false news, those things need to be confronted head on. You have to assume that you’re dealing with an adversary who’s sophisticated and their strategy will change over time, so the work never ends.”

According to Cardiogram founder Brandon Ballinger’s latest clinical study, the Apple Watch can detect diabetes in those previously diagnosed with the disease with an 85 percent accuracy. The study is part of the larger DeepHeart study with Cardiogram and UCSF. This particular study used data from 14,000 Apple Watch users and was able to detect that 462 of them had diabetes by using the Watch’s heart rate sensor, the same type of sensor other fitness bands using Android Wear also integrate into their systems.

In 2015, the Framingham Heart Study showed that resting heart rate and heart rate variability significantly predicted incident diabetes and hypertension. This led to the impetus to use the Watch’s heart rate sensor to see if it could accurately detect a diabetic patient. Previously, Ballinger and his colleagues were able to use Apple’s Watch to detect an abnormal heart rhythm with up to a 97 percent accuracy, sleep apnea with a 90 percent accuracy and hypertension with an 82 percent accuracy when paired with Cardiogram’s AI-based algorithm. Most of these discoveries have been published in clinical journals or abstracts and Ballinger intends to publish the latest findings shortly after presenting at the AAAI 2018 conference this week.

Diabetes is a huge and growing problem in the U.S. More than 100 million U.S. adultsare now living with pre-diabetes or diabetes and more than 1 in 4 of them go undiagnosed, according to the CDC. Part of the problem is the pain that goes into checking blood glucose levels. A patient must prick themselves after every meal and correctly take the right amount of insulin to keep themselves in balance.

Early detection could also help in cutting down on diabetes-related diseases before they get out of hand. While there have been other attempts to build special-purpose glucose-sensing hardware, this is the first large-scale study showing that ordinary heart rate sensors—when paired with an artificial intelligence-based algorithm—can identify diabetes with no extra hardware. So what’s next? Ballinger and his colleague on the study Johnson Hsieh mentioned they could be looking at a number of diseases to detect through heart sensors, possibly even gestational diabetes. Hsieh also cautions that those tested were already known to have diabetes or pre-diabetes and that anyone who thinks they might have it should go to their doctor, not just rely on the Watch to tell them what’s going on.

But the results are promising. We’ll just have to wait and see what else the Apple Watch and other fitness monitors with a built-in heart rate sensor are able to tell us about ourselves next.

Apple customers who like the iPhone X’s facial recognition and edge-to-edge screen but were turned off by the $999 price tag may have additional options at lower prices this fall. Apple is working on a lower-cost iPhone with some of the iPhone X’s best features for a launch later this year, according to Ming-Chi Kuo. The lower-cost iPhone will have the same facial recognition sensor as the iPhone X, as well as an edge-to-edge 6.1-inch LCD screen and no home button. Kuo predicted in a January 23 note it could cost between $700 and $800 — significantly less than the iPhone X, but higher than the current iPhone 8 models. However, KGI Securities says to expect some tradeoffs with the lower-cost iPhone, like the possible inclusion of a single-lens rear camera to save costs. KGI Securities believes it will have an LCD screen, which is an older technology than the OLED screen found in the iPhone X. And Kuo predicts it will have an aluminum casing, which is less premium than the stainless steel on the iPhone X. But the lower price may end up making the new iPhone the best-selling model, with over half of new lineup shipments, KGI Securities predicts.

The low-cost device isn’t the only new iPhone KGI Securities predicts Apple will launch. Apple could be preparing a new version of the iPhone X with better components in the same 5.8-inch sized-body. And there could be a so-called “Plus” version of the iPhone X launched this fall with a massive 6.5-inch OLED screen. Apple typically launches new iPhones in September. The KGI Securities research, which hasn’t been confirmed by Apple, suggests that the company may try to pull a trick that it last tried in 2013. In 2013, Apple tried to introduce a new-lower cost iPhone, called the iPhone 5C, instead of selling the previous year’s model at a discounted price. It was a sales disaster. Apple CEO Tim Cook even admitted that the device sold more poorly than the company expected. Demand for the colorful iPhone “turned out to be different than we thought,” Cook said in 2014.

It seems that Apple may try the iPhone 5C gambit again. KGI Securities predicts that Apple may discontinue the current iPhone X model, instead of selling it at a lower price after the new iPhones come out. The new lower-cost iPhone could help Apple gain market share in China, according to the research, which was also the goal for the iPhone 5C. “Lowering iPhone X’s price after the … new models launch would be a negative to product brand value given 3D sensing and OLED display are features of the new high-price model,” Kuo wrote in a January 22 note. Nikkei reported over the weekend that Apple was slashing iPhone production earlier this week. KGI Securities earlier this month revised its estimate for total iPhone X shipments over its lifetime to 62 million, down from 80 million, in a January 18 research note and said that shipments were “lower-than-expected.” If Apple were to discontinue the iPhone X this year, the lineup this Christmas could look a little bit like this: iPhone “X2 Plus” — Price unknown / iPhone “X2” — $999 and up / iPhone X — discontinued / LCD iPhone with Face ID — $700 to $800 / iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus — $599 or $699 / iPhone SE — $350

You know those ads that seem to follow you to every website? You went to one site one time to check out a thing and bam! that site’s ads now pop up on every site you visit. Well, now Google will let you mute them. At first, it may seem an odd move. Google makes money on its ads business, and giving advertisers free rein to stalk you on every site seems really good for companies hoping to remind you of that thing you checked out one time. But the search giant wrote that it wants to give you, the consumer, more transparency and control. It’s also good for business. Barraging you with reminder ads for the thing you are no longer interested in is not useful for you and is a waste for the business hoping to get you to come back.

Google uses the example of someone looking for snow boots, so we’ll go with that. You look up Snow Boots Co. for some research but decide to go with another type of snow boot not on that site, or just decide you’re no longer interested. That site might still be sending you ads, even though you’re not into them anymore. It’s very annoying to keep seeing everywhere the thing you don’t want. But now you can shut it all down by muting that advertiser. You could already mute ads and adjust ad settings these past few years, but now Google is offering a way for you to mute those pesky reminder ads in a new control in Ad Settings. It also will mute the ad across devices. So if you mute it on your smartphone, Google will mute that ad on your laptop.

It also plans to roll out the new controls on more platforms in the future, like YouTube, Search and Gmail. On top of all that, Google is expanding controls for another unwanted ads feature it implemented in 2012 that allows you to mute ads you don’t want to see anymore. “Millions of people use Mute this Ad on a daily basis, and in 2017, we received more than 5 billion pieces of feedback telling us that you mute ads that aren’t relevant,” Jon Krafcik wrote on the Google post explaining the updates. “We incorporated that feedback by removing 1 million ads from our ad network based on your comments.” Of course, these updates only affect ads rolled out within Google, so you may still see reminder ads from other places. It also can’t get rid of the annoying barrage of ads from your Facebook and Instagram feeds.

The good news is all you have to do to shut down those annoying reminder ads now is go to Google’s Ad Settings to see the ads currently targeting you and hit mute.

It’s been a while since we heard from Snow, the Snapchat clone app in Asia that Facebook once tried to buy, but today the company behind it has scooped up a $50 million investment from SoftBank and Sequoia China. Snow was started by Naver, the Korean firm behind popular messaging app Line, and it had proven popular in Japan, Korea, China and other markets in Asia thanks to a focus on localized filters, stickers and features. Not to mention Snapchat’s famous lack of effort in Asian markets. The Snow app has changed significantly since we last wrote about it, however. It’s no longer a Snap clone.

A major updated that dropped last week removed Snow’s user-to-user communication features and turned it into a dedicated selfie camera app. Without chat, the app doubles down on filters, stickers, augmented reality, and other selfie-related features to make photos and other media that can be exported to social networks or chat groups. Snow users can now, for example, record a video set to music from artists that include Charlie Puth. There’s the usual array of photo filters, alongside a GIF maker and Instagram-like Boomerang feature.

Snow plans to use this new investment to develop its augmented reality and facial recognition technologies. Its App Store listing shows it is working with Chinese unicorn SenseTime on facial recognition. It is also aiming to build partnerships and localize its service in China. Outside of Snow, Snow Corp also owns camera apps Foodie and B612, which it acquired from Line, so they may also be pushed in China as standalone apps, although the tech behind them is also shared with the core Snow app. A Snow representative told TechCrunch that the app now has over 200 million downloads on iOS and Android. The company doesn’t break out specific data for each market, but it said that China is its largest market. In January 2017, we reported that Snow had 40-50 million monthly active users but there’s no further update on the MAU front for now.

SoftBank and Sequoia have bought up 20 percent of the shares of Snow’s China business unit via this deal. Line is among Snow’s other backers, via two investments.

For one thing, it’s setting a higher bar for the YouTube Partner Program, which is what allows publishers to make money through advertising. Previously, they needed 10,000 total views to join the program. Starting today, channels also need to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in the past year. In an effort to regain advertisers’ trust, Google is announcing what it says are “tough but necessary” changes to YouTube monetization. For now, those are just requirements to join the program, but Google says it will also start applying them to current partners on February 20.

This might assure marketers that their ads are less likely to run on random, fly-by-night channels, but as Google’s Paul Muret writes, “Of course, size alone is not enough to determine whether a channel is suitable for advertising.” Muret also described changes planned for the more exclusive Google Preferred program, which is supposed to be limited to the best and most popular content. Vlogger Logan Paul was part of Google Preferred until the controversy over his “suicide forest” video got him kicked out last week, a story that suggests some of the limitations to Google’s approach.

Moving forward, Muret said the program will offer “not only … the most popular content on YouTube, but also the most vetted.” That means everything in Google Preferred should be manually curated, with ads only running “on videos that have been verified to meet our ad-friendly guidelines.” Lastly, Muret said YouTube will be introducing a new “three-tier suitability system” in the next few months, aimed at giving marketers more control over the trade-off between running ads in safer environments versus reaching more viewers.

Netflix was the top earning app of 2017 that wasn’t a mobile game, according to Sensor Tower’s new year-end report on the most successful apps and publishers across Apple’s App Store and Google Play. In previous years, the top spot had gone to Spotify, and before that, LINE. But this was Netflix’s year to shine. The service saw gross subscriber revenue of approximately $510 million – a 138 percent increase over last year – per the firm’s estimates. That’s about 2.4 times the $215 million users spent in the Netflix app in 2016. It’s not surprising to see Netflix snagging this top-grossing position. The app has been at the top of the revenue charts at various points throughout 2017. For example, in Q2 Sensor Tower had reported the app saw 233 percent revenue growth year-over-year to $153 million, which was then up from the $46 million it had seen at the same time last year.

At the time, Netflix was reporting a surge in international subscribers, which were accounting for the majority of its new signups. These new users are often joining Netflix through their phone and paying through in-app purchases. By its Q3 2017 earnings reported in October, Netflix had gone on to beat its own expectations for subscriber growth, again thanks to its adoption in international markets. Of the 5.3 million new subscribers in the quarter, 850,000 came from the U.S. while 4.45 million came from international markets. The Netflix app was also the top earner across all of Apple’s App Store. But on Google Play, it ranked below Tiner, Google Drive, LINE, Pandora, and HBO NOW. Another notable app success last year was Tencent Video. In 2016, it was the #14 top grossing app (non-game) by revenue on the App Store alone. This past year, it jumped up to #3 by revenue on the App Store, and #5 in overall revenue across both stores.

In terms of downloads, however, the top app list was dominated by Facebook. This year, Facebook’s main app lost the number one spot to WhatsApp as it sank to #3. Messenger and Instagram followed, and Snapchat was in fifth place. Sensor Tower’s report analyzed mobile games separately. Mixi’s Monster Strike was the top grossing mobile game in 2017 – a position it’s now held for three years in a row. Tencent’s Honor of Kings earned second place, but again, because Google Play isn’t in China. The games list is interesting for other reasons, as well. The one-time hit Pokémon Go didn’t make the top 10, but five year-old Candy Crush Saga did (#5). That goes to show that even though games is largely a hits-based business, it’s possible to have staying power in the market, too.

You might be enjoying the benefits of a credit card with robust rewards today, but odds are when you were first getting started, it was hard to get even close to a card like that. That’s because, for those just getting started or who have a poor credit history, those cards are generally out of reach and a lot of them are, Petal co-founder Jason Gross said. That’s why he and his co-founders looked to start Petal, a service that identifies candidates that would be good credit card holders even if they don’t have a credit history, based on some of their actions rather than just their credit score. The startup said today that it has raised $13 million in a new financing round led by Valar Ventures.

“That has to do with critical changes in the market and access to do with credit post-financial crisis,” Gross said. “The way we think about credit scoring is that it’s sorely outdated; its tech was developed 60 years ago based on a limited subset of financial data that was the only info at the time. It disadvantages certain groups in society in particular. The data that you need to create a more comprehensive score is now available but not being used. When we assembled all those pieces, we felt this was a real problem for millions of people.” Petal’s main product is a credit card, in which qualification for the card is based on the digital record it builds for its users. Rather than just looking at borrowing history, it looks at how much that user makes, spends or saves each month, and looks to offer them more differentiated products like lower interest rates on introductory products. The main goal here is to get people who should be able to responsibly manage a credit card, based on their spending history, actually get one in their hands and start building up that history.

A few of the startup’s most obvious targets are younger audiences that are picking up credit cards and associated products for the first time, as well as those who don’t have access to credit simply because they haven’t had an opportunity to build it. If you’re going to qualify for an important loan down the line say, a mortgage you need to build up that credit history, and that still requires actually getting in the door. “If you look at folks who are thin-file, credit invisible, those who don’t have an accurate score, they’re predominantly young people but they’re disproportionately groups that have historically lacked access to financial services,” Gross said. “Minorities, immigrants, if you lack a score or an accurate score it can cost you very real money throughout your life. Having no score, you’re treated as subprime, you won’t qualify for most financial products, or they’ll be more expensive and inferior.”

Petal isn’t alone in trying to identify good potential candidates for credit cards and getting one into their hands without a robust credit history. There are startups like Deserve, which raised $12 million in October earlier this year. Identifying these potential customers without a credit history is a tantalizing opportunity simply because the credit score might not be the best indicator, but it’s what banks and agencies have to work with for now. Gross hopes that Petal will be able to identify them with their technology and, by doing that, start to build up that big user base.